Four bloggers arrested amid crackdown in Bangladesh

New
York, April 4, 2013--The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned by the
recent arrests of four Bangladeshi bloggers in Dhaka in connection with their Internet
posts that police said hurt the religious beliefs of people.

"Targeting
bloggers who may not agree with the religious sensibilities of the majority is cause
for deep concern," said CPJ Asia Program Coordinator Bob Dietz. "Such a
crackdown on the Internet creates a climate of fear and hinders free
expression, which threatens democracy."

Police
on Wednesday arrested Asif Mohiuddin, a popular blogger who calls himself an
atheist and who had often criticized Islamic fundamentalism and written about
politicians and current events on his blog and Facebook page. Last week,
Mohiuddin had told Agence
France-Presse that he had been interrogated by detectives about his writings
and that 120 of his blog posts were deleted. His blog had been one of the most
visited websites in the country before it was removed at the order of
Bangladesh's telecommunications regulator, according to AFP. Mohiuddin is
being held in police custody for three days for further investigation, news
reports said.

On
Monday, police arrested bloggers Subrata Adhikari Shuvo, Mashiur Rahman Biplob,
and Rasel Parvez, news reports said. The bloggers appeared in court on Tuesday
for a preliminary hearing, where a judge denied them bail and placed them in
police custody for one week for further investigation, the reports said. The three could
face up to 10 years in jail if convicted under the country's cyber laws, which
outlaw "defaming" a religion, police said, according to news reports. Their
blogs were shut down following their arrests, reports said.

The
three bloggers had often criticized politicians and the press for being "biased
toward Islamist views and ideologies in a country that is constitutionally
supposed to be secular," according to news reports. The reports
said the bloggers arrested on Monday had frequently used Amar Blog, an online blog
publishing site that has since been shut down.

One
of the bloggers, Shuvo, who belongs to Bangladesh's Hindu minority, had criticized
the media in his posts in connection to what he believed was their failure to
fight discrimination in recent attacks on Buddhists and Hindus in the country,
according to reports. Bangladesh is 90 percent Muslim, and Islam is its official
state religion.

Molla
Nazrul Islam, deputy commissioner of the Dhaka police, told the local press that Shuvo,
Biplob, and Parvez had "hurt the religious feelings of the people by writing
against different religions and their prophets and founders including the
Prophet Muhammad."

Muhiuddin
Khan, Bangladesh's home minister, said at least three of the bloggers were
among 84 bloggers identified by an Islamist group as atheists in a list given to
a government panel probing alleged blasphemy against Islam on the Internet,
according to reports. In recent
years, bloggers have increasingly criticized what they see as heightened
religious fundamentalism, leading to tension between the online journalists and
Islamist fundamentalists.

The
arrests took place amid a wider government crackdown on the Internet following
mass demonstrations, called the "Shahbagh movement," in which protesters called
for the death penalty for leaders of the Jamaat-e-Islami party on trial for war
crimes during the 1971 war of independence. Many bloggers have encouraged and
publicized the protests, which have been attended by hundreds of thousands of
people.

The
government has also blocked about a dozen websites and blogs since last week,
reports said. Authorities set up a panel, which included intelligence chiefs,
to identify potential blasphemy on social media sites. Last week, the country's
telecommunications regulator ordered two sites to remove hundreds of posts by
seven bloggers whose writings it said offended Muslims, reports said.

The
Shahbagh protests have also led to Islamist groups staging their own
demonstrations and demanding that the government give the death penalty to
bloggers perceived as atheist, reports said. A newly emerged Islamist group,
Hefajat-e-Islam, is expected to hold a march in Dhaka on Saturday, and has
threatened a shutdown of the city and suicide attacks if the government
obstructs its march demanding the death penalty for the alleged atheist
bloggers, reports said.

CPJ
research shows an escalation in attacks against bloggers in Bangladesh since
the beginning of the year. In February, Ahmed Rajib
Haider,
a prominent blogger critical of Islamic fundamentalism, was hacked to death by
assailants outside his home in Dhaka. CPJ is investigating to determine if the
murder was related to his critical blog posts. In January, Mohiuddin was
brutally stabbed by three men
while leaving his office, news reports said.

For
more data and analysis on Bangladesh, visit CPJ's Attacks
on the Press.